State of the Weblog 2025

By Dr. Jim Dahle, WCI Founder

We’ve a 14-year custom right here at The White Coat Investor that we name “The State of the Weblog.” The purpose of this annual publish is to thank readers for trusting us with their time (and typically their cash), assessment our conflicts of curiosity, and spotlight what has been completed by the WCI group within the final yr.

For the primary half of that point interval, the publish offered extraordinary transparency—together with principally each greenback we made and spent, the place it got here from, and the place it went. As you would possibly predict, that had its downsides, not solely in spawning opponents however in offering a blueprint to observe. As WCI turned extra financially profitable, it made us fear a bit about our kids being kidnapped and held for ransom. So, it isn’t fairly as clear because it as soon as was, however it’s positively nonetheless as clear because it must be relating to our conflicts of curiosity. We’ll get to these in a second. First . . .

Thank You!

Thanks for being right here. Whether or not you are a weblog reader, podcast listener, redditor, discussion board member, YouTube watcher, convention attendee, pupil, ebook purchaser, or no matter, we’re glad you are right here. You are a vital a part of this entire enterprise. With out you, none of this works, and there would not be any level in placing in all this effort. Additionally, thanks for telling others about our assets. Through the years, our progress has primarily been from phrase of mouth: attendings telling residents, residents telling interns, interns telling college students, college students telling attendings, and sufferers telling docs in regards to the web site and its assets. And 99% of what we produce is not even all that doctor-specific. A lot of it is not even high-income particular. So, welcome and thanks to all of the non-doctors on the market as nicely.

Our main mission is to serve you as finest we are able to. We would like you to be financially profitable as a result of we predict life is best for you, your loved ones, and people YOU serve once you’re not apprehensive about cash or doing issues largely for the cash.

Conflicts of Curiosity

As Katie and I observe the rules we share on WCI, we’re centered much less and fewer on cash annually. The White Coat Investor is a for-profit enterprise and at all times has been. It had advertisements on its web site the very first week of its existence. This is what it regarded like:

Thanks to those that clicked on these advertisements. A click on again then was value one thing like $1.42. We managed to generate $921 or in order that first yr. We spent all of it, leaving no revenue, however hey, that is enterprise for you. My 7-year-old daughter would climb up on my knee every afternoon after faculty and ask me how a lot cash my web site made at present and I might report $1.42 or $2.84 and he or she’d be excited. She’s now an entrepreneurship main within the enterprise faculty at her school.

Why We’re For-Revenue

Lots of you aren’t conscious that I used to be doing “white coat investor” sort work for years earlier than the official begin of The White Coat Investor in 2011. I used to be simply doing it on web boards like The Pupil Physician Community, Sermo, and Bogleheads. I used to be getting sick of typing the identical factor again and again into the web, and I obtained actually excited that yr about “passive earnings.” Thus, the weblog was born. Effectively, earnings from WCI has been something however passive, but it surely does produce earnings. After just a few years, it dawned on me {that a} for-profit enterprise was precisely the fitting entity to perform the mission of The White Coat Investor. That originally small however rising earnings saved me sufficient to keep it up lengthy sufficient to achieve success and make a distinction, and it allowed us to do some issues that required cash. These embrace:

1. The White Coat Investor Scholarship: Greater than $543,000 in money plus tens of hundreds in prizes have been given on to college students over time.
2. The Champions Program: The White Coat Investor’s Information for College students was revealed early in 2021, primarily to be given away to first-year medical and dental college students. We ship it to as many as 70% of first-year college students annually, and we’re getting near having given away 100,000 copies. At $30 a bit, that is about $3 million value of books we have distributed.
3. The Monetary Educator Award: Since 2019, we’ve given away a money prize to encourage docs to show monetary rules to one another and their trainees.
4. Placed on a convention: The largest monetary danger we take annually, but it surely permits us to fulfill with the viewers nose to nose annually and study from some unbelievable presenters in our group.
5. Rent employees: There are actually dozens of individuals working right here at WCI, together with 11 full-time staff, six part-time staff, and 20+ unbiased contractors. Our first was employed in 2014. With out these first few hires, I would not have even made it to “WCI Burnout Time” in 2019, after which nearly all of these individuals had been employed. For some motive, all of them need to be paid each month, have medical insurance, ship their youngsters to school, and are available have enjoyable journeys with their teammates at work. WCI wouldn’t exist, in any respect, with out its employees.

I’d nonetheless be the face of WCI, however I am not doing even 5% of the work being finished right here. To perform what we’re making an attempt to perform, we HAVE to be a for-profit enterprise. Sadly, it’s unattainable to earn cash with out producing some type of a battle of curiosity. Even “fee-only” fiduciary monetary advisors have conflicts of curiosity, and we’re not a fee-only fiduciary advisor. We’re a media and training firm. A for-profit media and training firm. Naturally, we’ve a number of conflicts of curiosity.

There are actually 4 methods cash is made on the web. The primary is by promoting advertisements, and the second is by promoting the merchandise of others. Whether or not you receives a commission a flat fee for placing up an advert, receives a commission by the clicking on these advertisements, or receives a commission solely when the vendor really makes a sale (internet online affiliate marketing), the battle of curiosity is identical. If these advertisements do not ultimately end in gross sales producing extra income than the advertisements value, the advertisers (and their income) go away. Whereas we work exhausting to attempt to promote the nice individuals within the monetary providers trade and run “the dangerous guys” out of enterprise, it is unattainable to regulate every little thing that each single a type of advertisers ever did up to now or will do sooner or later. We bought them an advert; we’re not working their firm. That stated, for those who do not suppose an advertiser is as much as the requirements of The White Coat Investor group, we need to hear about it. We are able to typically resolve points a lot sooner than you possibly can. A number of unresolved complaints remove the privilege to promote right here fairly darn shortly.

“Internet affiliate marketing relationships” typically tackle totally different types of enterprise to ensure you get served nicely and that we receives a commission pretty. A few years in the past, as an example, we really began an insurance coverage company, and we’ve one licensed insurance coverage agent on employees. That wasn’t as a result of we had any curiosity in promoting insurance coverage (we’ve by no means really been the first agent on any coverage). We merely wished to ensure you had been handled nicely and we had been paid pretty for the referrals we had been producing. We would have liked an company to try this. It seems that insurance coverage brokers cannot legally make any type of affiliate fee to anybody aside from one other insurance coverage agent. That transfer turned out to be a sensible one, each for you and for us.

Equally, we began StudentLoanAdvice.com just a few years in the past, and we’re the bulk house owners of that service. Good for you. Good for us. But it surely’s somewhat distinctive as enterprise advertising and marketing relationships go. Is there a battle of curiosity as a result of we receives a commission once you purchase insurance coverage or some teaching in your pupil loans? Certain. But it surely’s the very same battle of curiosity we had again after we had been promoting flat price advertisements for those self same providers. Both you purchase these providers or our income from the referrals goes away fairly shortly.

The opposite two methods to generate income on the web are to promote our personal merchandise (on-line programs, books, the convention, and swag) and our personal providers (consulting, talking, writing, and so forth.). The plain battle of curiosity right here is that for those who do not buy it, we do not make something, placing us within the function of salespeople.

When you perceive how cash is made on the web, our conflicts of curiosity turn into apparent. However as a reminder, here’s a complete listing of them:

1. We’re incentivized to run content material that pertains to our advertisers’ companies extra steadily than different content material. The content material group is generally separate from the enterprise group, however the battle nonetheless exists.
2. We’re incentivized to just accept visitor posts from monetary professionals who promote with us extra steadily than those that don’t, regardless of our coverage to evaluate visitor posts purely on the idea of the content material. We do our greatest to observe it. We run only a few sponsored posts and solely to fund the WCI Scholarship, and even these usually have exceptionally excessive content material high quality.
3. We’re incentivized to suggest you buy time period life and incapacity insurance coverage insurance policies via our advisable brokers.
4. We’re incentivized to suggest you refinance your pupil loans when maybe it could not be an excellent transfer for you. I do not suppose we have ever finished this, however we’re actually incentivized to take action.
5. We’re incentivized to suggest you search out skilled assist with insurance coverage, monetary planning, funding administration, pupil mortgage recommendation, buying and promoting actual property, negotiating contracts, getting burnout teaching, and getting ready your taxes when maybe you might do a few of that by yourself.
6. Since we’ve actual property advertisers, we’re incentivized to debate actual property investments extra steadily than we in any other case would possibly or greater than we focus on conventional investments like index funds or various investments for which we would not have promoting companions. Let’s be trustworthy, we may get promoting companions for EVERY various funding on the market, and we routinely flip many down. What we nonetheless can not seem to do is get Vanguard, Constancy, Schwab, or iShares to promote their index funds right here, although 85% of my portfolio is invested in them.
7. We’re incentivized to just accept advertisers who don’t meet our excessive requirements for suggestion to family and friends. We’re continuously vigilant to attenuate this battle.
8. We’re incentivized to suggest you learn monetary books, together with and particularly our personal.
9. We’re incentivized to suggest you are taking our monetary programs and people of our affiliate companions.
10. We’re incentivized to suggest you attend WCICON.
11. We’re incentivized to encourage you to buy from the WCI Retailer.
12. We’re incentivized in opposition to recommending content material by others who’ve the identical internet online affiliate marketing companions or who compete for a similar advertisers.
13. We’re incentivized to suggest you employ the WCI discussion board over different boards, the White Coat Buyers Fb group over others, the WCI subreddit over different subs, and the Financially Empowered Girls (FEW) group.

OK, I believe we have nearly beat the conflicts of curiosity horse to dying, however in abstract:

• We’re a for-profit enterprise.
• We aren’t a fiduciary, fee-only monetary advisor (however we’ll refer you to many).
• We’ve conflicts of curiosity although our coronary heart is in the fitting place.
• We’re very clear about our conflicts of curiosity so you possibly can consider what you learn/hear within the applicable context.

Notable Occasions for 2024

Numerous attention-grabbing stuff occurred right here in 2024.

Jim Fell Off the Grand Teton

Regardless of our greatest efforts, WCI continues to be carefully linked with Katie, myself, and our household. One of many best challenges of 2024 for our household and The White Coat Investor occurred on August 21, 2024. Whereas main a rock climb on the North Face of the Grand Teton at 12,000 toes, about 300 toes above Teton Glacier, the mountain let go of me. I took a protracted chief fall; hit some ledges earlier than the rope caught me; and suffered severe accidents rendering me unconscious and the wrong way up with a number of fractures, dislocations, separations, a brisk cerebrospinal fluid leak, and several other lacerations. My life was saved by heroes on that mountain and within the trauma heart I reached inside three hours of the autumn. In case you missed this entire debacle, you possibly can catch up utilizing the 2 podcasts (the YouTube model is best) we revealed in November interviewing these heroes.

Whereas restoration was surprisingly speedy, there have been nonetheless a few weeks once I did not do any running a blog and a few months once I did not do any podcasting, even when I used to be doing talking gigs by the four- or five-week mark. Whilst I write this 5 months later, my life and motivation are nonetheless massively consumed by bodily remedy. This has had a major impression on my productiveness and that of Katie (our chief product officer) as she cared for me this yr. The WCI group, together with visitor hosts on the podcast, carried out remarkably nicely regardless of this problem and, for essentially the most half, improved the standard of the content material and providers we provide. As standard, I found they’re higher at most issues than I’m.

Katie Received Elected

As an alternative of spending time within the ICU and therapeutic, I used to be speculated to be serving to Katie run her marketing campaign for the native faculty board. I wasn’t a lot assist, however she nonetheless managed to get elected. Whereas her volunteer spirit has ensured that she could have ZERO conflicts of curiosity whereas serving on the board (her pay is being redirected to a basis supporting lecturers), her public service for the following few years will have an effect on how quickly we are able to create and convey to market extra merchandise. She continues to be doing all she will, although, and he or she has her first WCI talking gig arising subsequent week.

Our Employees Stabilized

We went on a hiring spree beginning in 2020 however lastly managed to stabilize our employees this yr. For the primary time in no less than 4 years, we did not rent anyone new in 2024 aside from some contractor writers. The steady nature of the employees has allowed us to focus extra in your wants and the way finest to serve you, slightly than coaching new individuals and swapping hats round as we tackle new jobs.

We Did a WCICON on the East Coast

The convention continues to be one of many highlights of the yr for our WCI group. Although it takes each particular person on our group to run it from solar as much as lengthy after the solar goes down for 4 days, it’s value each minute as a result of it’s the one time a yr we get to be nose to nose with so many white coat buyers. We’re impressed by your tales and motivated by your challenges. It was our first time in Florida and like these earlier than it, it was the very best convention but. The venue in Orlando was unbelievable, however that was simply the backdrop for the well-run convention packed every day with shows by a few of the finest finance and wellness educators within the trade, adopted by extremely enjoyable wellness actions, receptions, dinner teams, and extra.

Our attendees proceed to inform us it’s the very best convention they’ve ever been to, and so they depart feeling higher geared up to take that subsequent step of their monetary and wellness journey. We’re holding the custom and alternative alive with our 2025 convention arising on the finish of February in San Antonio. There may be nonetheless time to hitch us in Texas. We could or could not have purchased the complete group WCI belt buckles. You would possibly simply need one your self.

Till January 27, it can save you $200 in your convention price utilizing code SAVE200. Even for those who simply need to “strive it out” nearly, it can save you $100 with code VIRTUAL100. Study extra at wcievents.com.

Monetary Success

We had two years of declining earnings (2022 and 2023), however with enhancements in effectivity, help from you, and lots of exhausting work, that pattern has reversed. In 2024, we elevated top-line progress (income) by 10% and bottom-line progress (revenue) by 6%.

On-line Group Progress

We set a objective to develop our on-line communities by 20% in 2024, and we exceeded that objective, together with the WCI subreddit which is now 52% bigger than it was a yr in the past! There is a WCI group for almost all people together with:

• The WCI Discussion board (the oldest group in additional methods than one which noticed 94% extra guests in 2024)
• The WCI Fb Group (the most important group, however perhaps not for lengthy)
• The WCI Subreddit (the fastest-growing group, which can beat the Fb group to 100,000 members)
• The FEW (Financially Empowered Girls)

Social Media Progress

Years in the past, our social media feeds had been primarily designed to attempt to deliver individuals to the web site. We gave up on that a few years in the past and determined to deliver the content material to social media slightly than attempt to deliver social media to the content material. This strategy has been amazingly profitable. We now have 45,716 Instagram followers, 47% greater than the yr earlier than. The expansion percentages are even larger with Pinterest, LinkedIn, and TikTok, even when the entire numbers are smaller. Listed below are some examples of our hottest stuff from 2024.

Gave Away $437,000 Value of Books

One of many packages I’m most pleased with right here at WCI is our Champions Program the place we attempt to give a WCI ebook away to each first-year medical and dental pupil. We is perhaps doing extra good with this than the rest we do at WCI. Getting this info proper in the beginning of your profession is value actually thousands and thousands of {dollars} to docs. Yearly we’re increasing this system, and we’ll now present The White Coat Investor’s Information for College students to first years in nearly any skilled program, together with PA, NP, Pharmacy, CRNA, and extra. We had 123 colleges take part final yr, and we’re hoping to interrupt that report this yr.

Have been Impressed by College students

As soon as extra, we ran the WCI Scholarship Program, chosen 10 winners, and distributed about $60,000 in money. With greater than 1,000 candidates, our judges actually had their work lower out for them this yr. Successful essays may be discovered right here and right here.

Improved Reliability, Safety, and Performance

Most WCI employees works behind the scenes, and nowhere is that extra true than within the tech division. Below the management of CTO James Talbot, you are actually having a means higher expertise on this web site than was even potential again in 2011. The location principally by no means goes down anymore, and the tech group worries about stuff I did not even know we had been speculated to be worrying about. The group has been engaged on some large modifications that can roll out in 2025 that you just’re REALLY going to love and which is able to arrange WCI properly for its subsequent decade of service and success.

Hit the 600 Podcast Mark

We now have over 400 “common” WCI podcasts and over 200 Milestones to Millionaire podcast episodes. The very fact we’ve 23,135,562 all-time downloads is a mind-boggling quantity to me. We actually respect the two,307 critiques (4.8 stars!) that assist to unfold the phrase. It is a prime 50 podcast for investing and within the prime 100 for enterprise, which is fairly good contemplating its comparatively tiny area of interest market. Movies are actually on Spotify (28% acquire of followers there), and lots of of you now watch them on YouTube (a 69% improve in views there). The podcast is streamed in 77 nations, and the fastest-growing section (though nonetheless a comparatively small one) of listeners is the 55+ crowd. We’re all getting older, I suppose. I am now eligible for catch-up contributions for the primary time.

The most well-liked podcast this yr? It was #359, Tax-Deferred vs. Roth. No shock. That is essentially the most difficult private finance query on the market. Kudos to Chris Davin, the visitor on that podcast. We’ve some actually cool stuff deliberate for the podcast this yr, together with a considerably separate “again to fundamentals” collection that Megan Scott, our podcast producer, has been working exhausting on for many who desire to turn into financially literate utilizing the podcast format.

Designed 3 New On-line Programs

Hearth Your Monetary Advisor is now the course that grows with you. You should buy a really cheap model as a pupil, then improve it as a resident, after which improve it once more as an attending. There’s a CME model, too. The coed and resident variations had been new in 2024. We additionally put collectively a brand new Persevering with Monetary Schooling 2024 course, as we do annually.

Awarded One other Educator of the 12 months

Kent Bradley was awarded the WCI Educator of the 12 months. Effectively finished! So many on the market doing a lot good work on this area.

Helped At Least 130 of You Get PSLF (However Most likely A lot Extra)

In 2024, StudentLoanAdvice.com (SLA) celebrated one other excellent yr, surpassing $820 million in suggested pupil mortgage debt. In 2024 alone, the group guided 130 purchasers (that we all know of; but it surely could possibly be 2x-3x that quantity) to mortgage forgiveness via PSLF. Andrew Paulson, the chief advisor, met with a whole bunch of WCIers and offered helpful insights via the month-to-month publication. As a second-term Trump presidency begins, SLA is rigorously monitoring potential impacts on pupil loans.

Did a Little Writing 

Lest we overlook, sure, there may be nonetheless a weblog right here. It had 8.3 million web page views in 2024. That is lots of people studying lots of great things written by lots of good individuals. A few of our hottest weblog pages this yr included:

Oh yeah, and we despatched out some newsletters. Each month, our essential publication goes out to over 77,000 subscribers, however there may be additionally a smaller publication that goes out to actual property buyers and one to the Financially Empowered Girls (FEW). They’re all free, like 98% of what we produce right here.

Offered a Few Books and Some Swag

Whereas I used to be too busy falling off mountains to jot down any books this yr, the “outdated” ones (that also get up to date steadily slightly than new editions) proceed to promote nicely. The White Coat Investor’s Information to Asset Safety continues to be No. 1 in its class. Our worst vendor is The White Coat Investor’s Information for College students. Possibly it is as a result of we’re freely giving 30 instances as many as we’re promoting. Get it as a primary yr and it is free! There may be a number of different cool stuff out there on the WCI retailer, too.

Did Some Webinars

Along with paid talking gigs, we’re now doing 4 free webinars a yr: one every for college students, residents, attendings, and actual property buyers. We additionally associate with a lot of our sponsors to spice up training of their specific area of interest. The following webinar is aimed toward college students, and it is principally the presentation I might give if I had been invited out to your faculty to talk to your class adopted by an in depth Q&A interval. It is reside on February 12 at 6pm MT. Enroll even for those who’re unsure if you can also make it, and we’ll no less than ensure you get a hyperlink to the recording.

WCI Sources You Ought to Know About

My head is spinning simply to think about every little thing we have finished within the final yr. Through the years, I’ve realized that a lot of you don’t have any thought about lots of the stuff we’re doing. So, I will embrace a listing of hyperlinks to the entire assets (most of that are free) that we’ve put collectively for you over time.

Overwhelming, is not it? Sorry, we’re simply making an attempt that will help you in no matter means you like to be helped. Each one in every of these assets exists as a result of no less than one in every of you requested for it.

How You Can Assist

• Inform others about The White Coat Investor and share content material: The youthful they’re of their profession, the extra probably they’re to find out about it, however there are nonetheless lots that do not. A fast textual content or e-mail hyperlink to a podcast or weblog publish could possibly be life-changing.
• Subscribe and like on YouTube: Well-liked stuff turns into extra fashionable.
• Go away a five-star assessment on Spotify or Apple: Or no matter podcast participant you employ. Similar precept.
• Give us suggestions: Each about content material AND about advertisers.  The rationale WCI is so helpful to you now could be as a result of so many WCIers have offered helpful suggestions over time. Adverse suggestions will not be enjoyable to listen to, but it surely’s far more helpful than the optimistic variety. Such as you, we desire to get unfavorable suggestions privately. You may nonetheless simply e-mail us at editor (at) whitecoatinvestor.com.

What do you suppose? How did WCI show you how to this yr? What stunned you essentially the most?